Category: Latest News and Articles

All things talent acquisition and HR – something having a specified influence or effect

New LinkedIn Recruiter – Is It Worth The Big Bucks?

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Hiring, Latest News and Articles, Monster, Tools

Without sounding like I am speaking ill of my competition, I want to preface this that I use LinkedIn everyday and I admit I pay $25 a month because I am grandfathered in on the top level-account for dirt cheap so it makes for a great business expense.

This all being said, I agree a ton with the article below as I find hundreds of prospects a week without paying much (my $25 for LinkedIn gives me merely a few contacts), but remember Linkedin is a brag sheet and does not give you the whole story of the candidate / prospect you are looking for.  Also, it takes a ton of work to validate the information.  Coupled with LinkedIn, I use a ton of Chrome extensions as well as Monster (I work here), TalentBin (phenomenal tool, owned by Monster) and gosh darn it, awesome boolean skills.

To the writer’s point, here is a google string I used to use for Java Developers in LA.  And if that isn’t enough, here is one using a backdoor to LinkedIn, albeit gives me 3,800 to my google 223. Now you do your own math of efficiency for time to fill and cost of a recruiter.  Do you want to wait for 3,800 potential developers to open your inmail when it takes upwards of 50 days to get them to respond and half of them go into their social box if they have gmail.

Even if I didn’t work for Monster, I would still say TalentBin, pound for pound is the best choice if you were to pay for anything.  it gives you access to over 400M profiles and 70% of them have either personal emails and phone numbers or both as well as all their social footprints and why they are perfect for your job.

~The Organic Recruiter

By  | SourceCon

It’s safe to say that while some recruiters would argue LinkedIn Recruiter is worth big bucks, there are many others who would say that LinkedIn Recruiter is not worth the time of day as most of the data can be found by anyone for free online these days. So why pay the big bucks?

There was an ambivalence within me when I attended a LinkedIn event two weeks ago where they showcased their next generation LinkedIn Recruiter product. I wasn’t sure if the product was as good as they say and I wanted to find out what all the hype was. By the end of the product demo, I must say I was not convinced.

So according to the LinkedIn, the new product is much simpler, faster, and more intuitive to use. LinkedIn Recruiter essentially is an advanced search engine that finds profiles using parameters such as job titles, skills, and company names. It will show you other terms you can add to your search and provide you a list of potential profiles, helping you quickly review the matches for your open job.

If you have a potential employee in mind (assuming they are on LinkedIn) simply enter their name and LinkedIn Recruiter will guide you in building your search. For example, if you were to search for Java Developers, LinkedIn Recruiter will automatically generate a list based on top skills, companies, location and more. If you can’t find who you’re looking for, you can narrow the search by adding sections based on elements within the profile (e.g. school, current company, years of experience, etc.).

I guess many of you reading this are thinking – If the next generation of LinkedIn Recruiter is so intuitive and is able to do all these by itself, then it must be pretty cool and really is worth the big bucks!

However, it’s not all conquering as they make us recruiters believe.

The Challenge

As a recruiter, you must have realized by now that candidates are an innovative bunch and they express themselves in many different ways on LinkedIn. Have a read of this blog I had written and you will know what I mean.

Think of all the available LinkedIn data produced by these candidates as the haystack, keeping in mind LinkedIn today has 450 million profiles globally, and all the targeted profiles in your search as the needles. The haystack is getting bigger by the minute, therefore, the needles are getting buried deeper and deeper. Even now, some of these needles are making themselves “ghosts” so you and I can’t find them, hence, your targeted profiles are becoming harder to spot by the minute.

Even if you had gone through the haystack, how can you be sure that have you found all the needles? With all the variation in the data, are you certain you haven’t missed any potential needles (or profiles) during your search?

Can you rely on LinkedIn Recruiter to do this for you? I don’t think so, well not to the level you need.

Let’s forget about LinkedIn Recruiter for a moment.

Remember that the process of candidate searching is all about data retrieval and pattern recognition.

It’s a systematic approach to:

  1. Gather your requirements (what you need to search for)
  2. Run your search
  3. Review your results
  4. Identify the patterns and false positives (e.g. exclude terms you don’t want)
  5. Modify and re-run your search
  6. Continue the above 5 steps until you get it right and are confident you haven’t missed anything

It’s about the Execution

You can have the fastest car in the race, but if you don’t have the skill to steer it around the track without crashing, then having the best car is not a guarantee you will always win the race.

Now apply this analogy onto LinkedIn Recruiter. Sourcing is more about how you execute your search by following an iterative/systemic approach rather than just keying parameters into a search field. I know that practicing iterative/systemic approach in my search whether using LinkedIn Recruiters or my free LinkedIn account will enable me to uncover the profiles most can’t.

For me, I will always trust my search capability and don’t see the need to pay LinkedIn the big bucks, even if they have a much simpler, faster, and more intuitive search function. It’s free all the way for me.

What about you?

This post originally appeared on the ATC Blog.

Hackers selling 117 million LinkedIn passwords

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Latest News and Articles

Hackers selling 117 million LinkedIn passwords

LinkedIn was hacked four years ago, and what initially seemed to be a theft of 6.5 million passwords has actually turned out to be a breach of 117 million passwords.

On Wednesday, the professional social network company acknowledged that a massive batch of login credentials is being sold on the black market by hackers.

The worst part about it is that, because people tend to reuse their passwords, hackers are more likely to gain access to 117 million people’s email and bank accounts.

The advice for everyone who uses LinkedIn (LNKD, Tech30) at this point is: Change your password and add something called two-factor authentication, which requires a text message every time you sign in from a new computer.

linkedin password sale

This episode drudges up some embarrassing history for LinkedIn.

Because of the company’s old security policy, these passwords are easy for hackers to crack in a matter of days.

Companies typically protect customer passwords by encrypting them. But at the time of the2012 data breach, LinkedIn hadn’t added a pivotal layer of security that makes the jumbled text harder to decode.

Put on the defensive, LinkedIn is now scrambling to try to stop people from sharing the stolen goods online — often an impractical task. The company is also invalidating all customer passwords that haven’t been updated since they were stolen.

LinkedIn said it’s reaching out to individual members affected by the breach. This particular hack affects a quarter of the company’s 433 million members.

Now, computer security experts are wondering why it took so long for LinkedIn to figure out what happened to their own company computers — or acknowledge it publicly.

“If LinkedIn is only now discovering the scale of data that was exfiltrated from their systems, what went wrong with the forensic analysis that should have discovered this?” said Brad Taylor, CEO of cybersecurity firm Proficio.

Hackers are selling the stolen LinkedIn database on a black market online called “The Real Deal,” according to tech news site Motherboard.

For its part, LinkedIn offered the same, go-to statement used by every company after a data breach.

“We take the safety and security of our members’ accounts seriously,” wrote Cory Scott, the company’s chief information security officer.

CNNMoney (New York)First published May 19, 2016: 9:23 AM ET

EMPLOYMENT RATE – APRIL 2016

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Employment Retention, Latest News and Articles

My 2 cents on the low unemployment rate: This is a simple case of supply and demand.  We are fortunate to have a thriving country and most of us are working. Conversely, in talent acquisition, we need to find ways of finding the great people.  The purple squirrels and unicorns are not going to just call us.  So we need to work our multi-prong approach to find them before your competitor does.

What does that mean? Well it means employee referrals, job boards, your talent in your ATS that you are not or cannot find, social recruiting, your network and many other ideas of recruitment mix.

Are you prepared for this lack of supply and high demand? I can help.

The numbers are looking good once again.  However, please do your due diligence and know that these numbers don’t necessarily talk about the people that have taken themselves out of the workforce or are underemployed.*

Household Survey Data

In April, the unemployment rate held at 5.0 percent, and the number of unemployed persons was little changed at 7.9 million. Both measures have shown little movement since August.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for Hispanics increased to 6.1 percent in April, while the rates for adult men (4.6 percent), adult women (4.5 percent), teenagers (16.0 percent), Whites (4.3 percent), Blacks (8.8 percent), and Asians (3.8 percent) showed little or no change.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) declined by 150,000 to 2.1 million in April. These individuals accounted for 25.7 percent of the unemployed.

In April, the labor force participation rate decreased to 62.8 percent, and the employment-population ratio edged down to 59.7 percent.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was about unchanged in April at 6.0 million and has shown little movement since November. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

In April, 1.7 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, down by 400,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

Among the marginally attached, there were 568,000 discouraged workers in April, down by 188,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.1 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in April had not searched for work for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

Establishment Survey Data

Job creation this month went down from 215,000. Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 160,000 in April. Over the prior 12 months, employment growth had averaged 232,000 per month. In April, employment gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, and financial activities, while mining continued to lose jobs.

Professional and business services added 65,000 jobs in April. The industry added an average of 51,000 jobs per month over the prior 12 months. In April, job gains occurred in management and technical consulting services (+21,000) and in computer systems design and related services (+7,000).

In April, health care employment rose by 44,000, with most of the increase occurring in hospitals (+23,000) and ambulatory health care services (+19,000). Over the year, health care employment has increased by 502,000.

Employment in financial activities rose by 20,000 in April, with credit intermediation and related activities (+8,000) contributing to the gain. Financial activities has added 160,000 jobs over the past 12 months.

Mining employment continued to decline in April (-7,000). Since reaching a peak in September 2014, employment in mining has decreased by 191,000, with more than three-quarters of the loss in support activities for mining.

Employment in other major industries, including construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information, leisure and hospitality, and government, showed little or no change over the month.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 0.1 hour to 34.5 hours in April. The manufacturing workweek and overtime remained unchanged at 40.7 hours and 3.3 hours, respectively. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls was up by 0.1 hour to 33.7 hours.

In April, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 8 cents to $25.53, following an increase of 6 cents in March. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.5 percent. In April, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 5 cents to $21.45.

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised from +245,000 to +233,000, and the change for March was revised from +215,000 to +208,000. With these revisions, employment gains in February and March combined were 19,000 less than previously reported. Over the past 3 months, job gains have averaged 200,000 per month.

For the full report: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

May 2016’s Newsletter

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Diversity, Employment Retention, Employment Value Proposition, Latest News and Articles

It would be very remiss of me to not dedicate this edition to my favorite musical artist of all time, Prince and the passing of a genius this past month. A man full of controversy throughout the last 4 decades was one who did it his way.  For this there was always speculation of who he was and what he stood for.  One thing for sure, he will be missed for the amazing talent he was and the influence he left.

For this I will use as the platform and theme if you will for this edition around diversity and inclusion as his song Controversy is what it is all about.  The words as they rang out from this song, “am I straight or gay? Am I black or white…” is indeed what we look at in diversity and inclusion on the mere surface.

And in the spirit of Prince, I also suggest reading a book on his biography around the Purple Rain era…or rather the time when everyone new every word to every song.  The book itself is controversial, but always remember he did it his way while overcoming the “conventional way”, the “right way” or even “the way it’s always been done”.

There is no perfect way.  Nor does right come in a color or a gender.  Believe in you.  You may be controversial, but at the end of the day, you get to smile…Let’s go crazy!

Mahalo!

This Month’s articles:

WORKPLACE BULLYING: FIVE WAYS EMPLOYERS CAN PREVENT IT

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Diversity, Latest News and Articles

by Beth Zoller | October 2, 2015

Here is a topic that has gotten under my skin since junior high school.  I go way back then because this is where it all starts, if not before.  Discrimination comes in all flavors as like the vehicle of the way one discriminates. Bullying can be passive or darn right in your face.  Regardless of how it comes out, it needs to quit.  The article below is a few months old, however it touches on a strong point of discrimination and in fact it is timeless.  ~The Organic Recruiter

October marks National Bullying Prevention Month, so it is a good time for employers to take notice of how serious an issue workplace bullying can be.

According to a 2014 Workplace Bullying Institute survey, almost a third of all workers have suffered serious bullying and abusive conduct at work and 72 percent are aware that workplace bullying occurs. Employers need to understand that everyone is a potential target and no one is immune as bullying affects individuals of all races, ages, and sexes and occurs in all industries.

What’s more, bullying carries severe risks for employers and can have a negative effect not only on the workplace, but also on an employer’s business and professional reputation. It can lead to decreased productivity and workplace morale, increased absenteeism, increased healthcare and workers’ compensation costs and potential lawsuits for negligent hiring, internal infliction of emotional distress, assault and battery. Here are five key tips to prevent and address workplace bullying:

1. Understand that Bullying Takes Many Forms

It is critical for an employer to understand that bullying is hard to define and can take many forms. It covers a wide range of threatening and/or offensive physical, verbal and written behavior. Simply put, bullying is any activity intended to diminish or disempower another individual and any use of aggressive, hostile, abusive or unreasonable conduct against a co-worker or subordinate that is intended to interfere with their work.

Bullying may include:

  • Creating unrealistic demands;
    • Taking credit for another’s work;
    • Excluding an individuals from meetings or lunch; or
    • Spreading rumors about another, or blatantly ignoring or putting down a co-worker.

Bullying differs from ordinary workplace incivility and rudeness because it is intentional, frequent, repetitive and severe, often resulting in a pattern of abusive and offensive behavior.

  1. Implement and Enforce an Antibullying Policy

An antibullying policy is essential to preventing workplace bullying by putting employees on notice that abusive and offensive behavior will not be tolerated. The policy should clearly define acceptable and unacceptable behavior and provide clear examples.

It should also provide for a multichannel complaint procedure and allow employees to report incidents without fearing retaliation. Employees should feel confident that all complaints with be addressed and investigated by the employer. This policy should be firmly communicated to employees in the employee handbook and on the employer’s intranet.

  1. Provide Antibullying Training

An employer must provide comprehensive training to all employees and supervisors on the employer’s antibullying policy and educate employees on the dangers of bullying and how it is detrimental to the workplace.

The training should review the policy and coach employees on sensitivity, tolerance and a mutual respect for others. Training should be interactive and present hypotheticals to encourage employees to think about their interactions with co-workers.

Supervisors and employees alike should be trained to identify bullying conduct and bring it to the employer’s attention since victims may fear bringing a complaint. Employees should be warned that joking, teasing, horseplay and usual workplace banter can quickly escalate and lead to workplace bullying.

Management should lead by example and foster an atmosphere of diversity, inclusion and respect. The employer also should promote a safe and healthy workplace with a focus on building trust, camaraderie and positive relationships.

  1. Take Complaints Seriously and Thoroughly Investigate

An employer should be vigilant about responding to bullying allegations and promptly address and investigate complaints. This includes gathering any relevant documents, including emails, and interviewing all possible witnesses including the complainant, the alleged bully and any third parties who may have witnessed the behavior.

A thorough investigation process and detailed records may protect the employer’s interests in the event of a later lawsuit by the victim and show that the employer made every effort to respond to the allegations and remedy any abuse.

  1. Enforce the Policy

The employer should not hesitate to enforce its antibullying policy to the fullest extent and demonstrate to all employees and supervisors that bullies will be disciplined and terminated if necessary. The employer should convey that all employees will be treated equally under the policy and high-level managers and supervisors will not receive special treatment.

An employer also should make any necessary changes to the work environment to decrease instances of bullying such as separating the bully from his or her victim and changing the reporting structure. By taking these steps, an employer will make clear that abusive workplace conduct will not be tolerated.